This is the second instalment in the Bruckner symphony cycle that Andris Nelsons is making with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Last year I was impressed by the inaugural release in the series which featured the Third symphony. . . [the Gewandhausorchester plays] marvellously . . . Nelson's opening is impressive; the music is well paced and beautifully voiced. In the second group (2:34) he invests the music with grace and lightness of touch -- as he does whenever this material is revisited. It seems to me that he handles the transitions well. Bruckner is a composer to whom dynamic contrast matters hugely and this present performance certainly delivers that -- throughout the symphony, in fact. So, we hear exciting, blazing tuttis but the often spare-textured sections (for example 6:21-7:22) are very well presented. There's grandeur, too . . . the way this first movement ends in Leipzig: the concluding peroration sounds magnificent, the unison horns of the Gewandhausorchester ringing out thrillingly. At the start of the second movement Nelsons moulds the melodic line beautifully . . . Nelsons and his orchestra ravish the ear. As the movement unfolded I found that Nelsons carried me along with him; his conducting is highly persuasive and he sustains concentration admirably. It helps, of course, that we're treated to sovereign playing from the Gewandhausorchester. Here, and in the symphony's other movements, Nelsons controls the build-up to climaxes very well indeed and the climaxes themselves open out regally. The famous 'hunting' scherzo goes very well. The Leipzig brass blaze excitingly and also display plenty of athleticism. One has a real sense of the thrill of the chase. The 'hunting' sections are very exciting but the contrasting, gentle trio is equally successful. There's considerable refinement in the playing and it sounds for all the world as if our huntsmen have paused by a cooling stream to give their steeds a drink. But soon the hunt is up again and the chase resumes excitingly. As delivered by the Gewandhausorchester, the first great tutti in the finale is tremendously imposing and that description applies equally to all the similar passages in this movement . . . [last movement]: Nelsons leads the listener on very successfully. As in the first movement, Bruckner's dynamic contrasts are given full value . . . At 18:46 Nelsons reaches the start of the long build-up to the symphony's apotheosis. He controls these closing pages superbly; the music is pregnant with tension as the dynamics slowly build. The final pages are dominated, as they should be, by one last glorious outpouring of unforced majestic tone from the Leipzig brass choir. This is a very distinguished account of the 'Romantic' Symphony; I enjoyed it and admired it. It's to be a feature of this Bruckner cycle, I understand, that music by Wagner will furnish the couplings. Here the choice falls on the Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin, a very apt choice . . . It's a very good performance, well-paced and controlled by Nelsons. On repeated listening, my abiding memory is the richness of the Gewandhausorchester's brass and lower strings. The DG engineers have captured these performances in sound that both complements and does full justice to the music and to the burnished tones of the Gewandhausorchester. This is a fine addition to Andris Nelsons' Brucker cycle and I look forward keenly to the next instalment, which brings the Seventh symphony.

Record Review /
John Quinn,
MusicWeb International (Coventry) / 01. May 2018

This is the second instalment in the Bruckner symphony cycle that Andris Nelsons is making with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and all the signs are that this will be a modern cycle of distinction, despite the youth of the conductor; there is no indication of Nelsons lacking the maturity or experience to do justice to Bruckner's symphonies . . . The modern Leipzig orchestra makes a more homogenised sound than of yore but what a beautiful sound it is. Everything seems right in this first movement: the opening string tremolando is full of contained tension, the horn mellow, the development urgent and propulsive, before Nelsons relaxes into the bucolic second subject at just the right tempo. He has the gift of creating a sense of drama and expectation without resorting to bombast or agogic distortion, Tutti passages blaze with conviction and the climactic chorale ten minutes in is simply magnificent, contrasting with the wistful, searching passage which immediately succeeds it . . . [2nd movement]: Nelsons moulds phrases beautifully and the orchestra's soft playing ravishes the ear. The return if the first subject nine minutes in is magical; the melody slides and as it is handed from one instrumental group to another over a cushion of pizzicato strings allows each to demonstrate its virtuosity at low volume. The contrast with the weighty, majestic climax of the movement is telling -- this is great playing and conducting . . . The finale can fragment under direction which is too impulsive or erratic but Nelsons maintains a long view, keeping his powder dry for the drive toward final apotheosis without ever sacrificing tension. The great waves and lulls in the music come and go, and the listener is uniformly gripped throughout by Nelsons' ability to link one section to another. The concluding three minutes of the final movement constitute one of the most thrilling and glorious passages in all Bruckner; Nelsons triumphantly unveils its mystery and power, building inexorably with a sure touch and a mounting sense of the numinous. This is undoubtedly one of the best accounts of this symphony ever recorded and certainly the finest of recent years.

Andris Nelsons - Bruckner - The Bruckner Symphonies (Teaser 2)

Coupled with the Prelude to Wagner’s Lohengrin, Bruckner's Fourth Symphony is the second release in Andris Nelsons' series of all Bruckner’s symphonies, soon to be followed by the release of Symphony No. 7 on 6 April 2018.

Andris Nelsons - Bruckner - The Bruckner Symphonies (Teaser)

Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony is known as his “Romantic” Symphony. Bruckner himself chose this term after starting work on it in January 1874. “The music gives us an insight into Bruckner’s psyche and allows us to sense what he was feeling and thinking at the time of the work’s composition,” says Nelsons, "and there is no denying that the symphony’s musical language is unusually personal and intimate.”

Andris Nelsons - Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 (Trailer)

Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester present a groundbreaking Bruckner Symphony cycle, coinciding with the orchestra's 275th anniversary and the conductor's inauguration as the new Gewandhauskapellmeister. Here, Nelsons introduces Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, also known as his "Romantic Symphony".

Video

Andris Nelsons - Bruckner - The Bruckner Symphonies (Teaser 2)

Coupled with the Prelude to Wagner’s Lohengrin, Bruckner's Fourth Symphony is the second release in Andris Nelsons' series of all Bruckner’s symphonies, soon to be followed by the release of Symphony No. 7 on 6 April 2018.